It’s just over 30 years since I qualified as a vet, so it’s not surprising that I have seen quite a few changes, not only within the profession itself, but also in the diagnosis and treatment of illness. What’s even more interesting is the “emergence of new conditions” and the way in which others have seemingly diminished.

However, I do suspect that some of the conditions that we commonly diagnose today have existed for some time; it’s only our ability to recognise them as definite clinical conditions that’s changed. Hyperthyroidism in cats is a typical example, not really recognised clinically until the early 1980’s although as a student I am fairly certain it was around during my training. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in both cats and dogs is another. This is a chronic condition involving frequent bouts of diarrhoea with blood and mucus which, in a lot of cases, requires long term medication and treatment to keep the condition under control. I am sure that I saw cases in my early years in practice in London, but did not know about the immunological basis of this condition until fairly recently, when investigations have provided an insight into this worrying problem.

It is with chronic conditions like IBD, that I feel that complementary medicine has a lot to offer, either by helping to reduce the dose of conventional treatment or by providing a complete alternative approach. If you are new to alternative medicine, then Denes is a particularly good starting point where you will find considerable information and support.